Sometimes We Just Need an Adjustment I saw a video of a dad watching his little girl trying to lift something, and the caption said, “Don't take hard things from your kids.” His daughter was struggling to lift something over a bar, and he said, “It's not that she can't lift it; she just needs adjustments.” Once he helped her adjust her hands, she was able to lift it over the bar a little more easily. Isn't that some good imagery right there? We struggle, and sometimes we're b

Giving Our Best or the Bare Minimum? I’m doing a study right now, and one of the main questions I’ve heard and been thinking about a lot is: Are we giving our best or the bare minimum, calling it good, and expecting God to bless us? Are we doing what we’re doing to truly serve the Lord, or are we just checking that box? In Malachi, we can read exactly how the Israelites were doing just that—checking that box. In this passage it’s more about honor and not just effort. Malachi

Do You Trust the Lord? In reading Psalms, I’m always amazed by David’s faith and reliance on the Lord. We fold under the smallest of pressures sometimes, and here he was, running and hiding for long periods of time because not once, but twice, people wanted to kill him. Can you imagine the pain and torment he faced? First, his best friend’s dad turned against him in 1 Samuel, and then his own son in 2 Samuel. I know what that would do to me—the mind games and the complete and

Who Do You Say You Are? What we attach our identity to forms us, which is why we need to die to self and let our identity be in Christ. Ephesians 2:10 – “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” When we are being introduced or introducing ourselves, we say our names and generally what we do—our occupation. With this, we have introduced ourselves and attached what we do to our identity. This

It Was Always The Plan I’ve been reading in the Old Testament, and I’m really finding myself interested in the seven festivals—the Lord’s appointed festivals. In Leviticus 23, it lays out what they are and why the Israelites were to observe them. These are interesting to me because as the Lord is explaining them to Moses, He reminds the people who He is, and He also says that these are to be lasting ordinances for the generations to come. These festivals gave the Israelites o

The People God Places Around Us My daughter was struggling with some Algebra work that she needed to do, and though I’m not good at math, I tried to help her out. When that didn’t work, I went to my husband (he’s good at math), and he tried to help her. But you know when you haven’t done something in a while, trying to jump into it blind can be hard. Well, next we grabbed our oldest son. He’s a senior, so he sat down and said, “Okay, let me show you how to figure this out.” I

“In A Little While” What does “In A Little While” mean? What an honest question. We all have our own meaning for “in a little while,” but when it comes from God, we really don’t know what it means. In John 16:16-18, we read a very honest response from the disciples that we can all understand. (Of course this is all pertaining to Jesus’s death, but it lands the timing topic so well) John 16:16-18 - “In a little while you won’t see me anymore. But a little while after that, you

Am I Growing in Love? I was sitting outside reading, and when I was done, I just sat there for a moment in the quiet. I heard a woodpecker and watched some ants. They were diligently working. They knew their purpose, and they got to it each and every day. I’ve asked myself and God this question before: What is my purpose? I grew up in church, and there was a lot of emphasis put on being called to pastor, be a missionary, or be an evangelist. So, as I sought the Lord, He showe

Feelings, Faith, and a Firm Foundation I heard a phrase on a podcast, and it stopped me... because it’s true. Here’s what was said: "Our fears can become our idols because we put all our focus on them." I would add emotions to that because it’s not just fear. All of our emotions can take hold of us and become something we focus on more than God. I was once someone who let what I felt carry me. I would dive deep into some feelings more than others and let them take hold. The o

Character Impact I was reading in the Book of Ruth the other day and got to chapter 2:10-12, which says, “Ruth fell at his feet and thanked him warmly. ‘What have I done to deserve such kindness?’ she asked. ‘I am only a foreigner.’ ‘Yes, I know,’ Boaz replied. ‘But I also know about everything you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband. I have heard how you left your father and mother and your own land to live here among complete strangers. May the

Trust God into the depths of life Trust and obey, for there’s no other way—do you remember that hymn? It’s so good. It tells us that there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. I’ve been thinking about obedience recently... again. It comes up often because I’m a parent, and it makes me think about my own obedience to the Lord. We find it easier to follow and obey someone when we trust them. I know for myself, I will even listen to someone better if I trus

“You’re grounded.” I was thinking about this phrase the other day and how it has such a negative connotation behind it. Sure, we as parents use it as a form of discipline with our kids, but I wanted to know where the phrase actually came from. According to what I found, the punishment of “grounding” comes from aviation. By the 1930s and 1940s, military and civilian authorities used the term “grounded” when an aircraft or pilot was forbidden from flying because of behavior, ru

Living Like We Have a Heavenly Father I’m reading Elisabeth Elliot’s book Joyful Surrender again, and she opens the book by talking about being at a cottage in Texas and taking in the wildlife as they live life around her. She talks about the freedom they have. She quotes something her dad always said, “Said the Robin to the Sparrow, ‘I should really like to know why these anxious human beings rush about and worry so.’ Said the Sparrow to the Robin, ‘Friend, I think that it m

God Sees Our Struggle I don’t know about you, but when I’m facing something, I can feel so isolated, even knowing that my husband is right there in the boat with me. We can often be surrounded by a community that has said, “Let me help you,” yet still sit in our struggle all alone. I’m very guilty of this. This reminds me of the scripture in Mark chapter 6. The disciples were in a boat, and there was a storm. They were struggling to paddle and get to shore. They were all in i

More than a Check List Are you a list maker? What about setting goals for the year? I am definitely a list maker, but I don’t usually set yearly goals. This year, though, I did make a list of things I wanted to work on. For work, I wrote: Stay focused and organized. Be intentional for God. Personally, I wrote: Grow closer to God. Get healthy. Spend time with family. Pay off debt. Connect with others. I have this list taped to my desktop in my office so I can see it every day.

Trusting God with our loved ones I have struggled with anxiety at different times in my life. In those moments, I found myself focusing on the "what ifs" and everything that could happen. Negative thoughts would swirl around in my mind, and I would become fearful of things that might never even happen. As you can imagine, I often talked myself out of doing certain things because of those fears. Then I had kids. Now those anxious thoughts didn't just revolve around me or my hu

Tuned to the Harmony We have all heard music in one form or another, and when we listen to it, we naturally follow the melody because it is the most prominent part that we hear. It feels natural to follow. But the moment you try to switch to the harmony, it becomes more difficult. You begin to question whether you've found it or if it even sounds right. It can feel unstable. Your pitch isn't necessarily bad (maybe), your ear is just tuned to the melody instead of the harmony.

God is THE Light I have read Genesis many times, and every time I’m amazed by the account of creation. One thing that has always stood out to me is that God created light before He created the sun, moon, and stars. Genesis 1:3-5 says, “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light ‘day,’ and the darkness he called ‘night.’ And there was evening, and there was morning

Trust in the Lord Trust—that’s a word that brings a variety of reactions. There are people we can think of immediately when we hear it. There’s that cringe feeling we get when trust has been broken. Then there are those relationships that fall somewhere in between. I think most of us fall in the middle. There are people we know we can trust, but at the same time, the thought of learning to trust someone new feels like a lot of work, and we kind of just go, “Ugh, I’m good.” Th

When We Know Better Last night at our family game night, we were playing Scrabble, and one of my sons played a word. We knew the word wasn't spelled correctly, but we also knew that the Scrabble dictionary sometimes allows alternate spellings, so we let it go. After he played and we moved on with the game we decided to check it, and our suspicions were confirmed. We then spent about ten minutes discussing the situation because my husband had already played off the incorrectly